Holy Family Catholic Primary School
Climate Change and Sustainability
We’ve taken the Let’s Go Zero pledge, declaring our aim to become zero carbon by 2030. We’re joining schools across the UK in this national campaign to show the overwhelming support for zero-carbon schools, and inviting government and local councils to work with us to reach this goal.
We know that schools can be the trailblazers for their community, responding to young people’s calls for action. In fact, they can inspire whole communities to tackle the climate crisis. In the upcoming pivotal ‘climate decade,’ we will be part of Let’s Go Zero’s national network of schools and sustainability, sharing information about how to reach zero carbon, and working with local councils and government to make it happen.
We’re committing to cutting carbon in a number of key areas.
What we have already accomplished.
- All windows and doors are double-glazed.
- Light sensors in some rooms
- Smart meter installed
- Regular boiler maintenance
- Lights are not switched on all around the school – just where needed.
- Heating temperature reduced, but still comfortable
- Heating switched on later in the autumn term, when feasible, and switched off earlier in the spring term.
- LED/energy saving bulbs used when replacing bulbs
- Encourage walking to/from school
- Kitchen cookers are only turned on when needed.
- Buying energy efficient and sustainable consumer goods
- Power management for IT equipment
Still to accomplish
- LED lighting replacement programme
- Investigate how we use the energy that we do and how we can achieve greater efficiency/reduction
- Investigate suppliers and their carbon footprints
- Renewable energy systems that can be appropriate for schools include wind turbines, biomass, solar heat and power and heat pumps.
By joining the Let’s Go Zero campaign and committing to becoming a school, we’re taking a positive step on a local level to help combat the climate issues we all face globally. It sends a strong message to our whole school and community that together we can safeguard our planet for future generations.
Find out more about the Let’s Go Zero campaign here:
Connecting with Nature
At Holy Family Primary School, we have been committed to helping our young learners connect with nature for many years. In our Forest School, we have a statue of St Francis, the Patron Saint of Animals, Ecology and the Environment. St Francis reminds us to nurture all living things in God’s world.
Pope Francis wrote a letter addressed to every person on the planet, asking us all to listen to the "cry of the earth and the cry of the poor". We have a team of ambassadors called our Laudato Si team. They lead their own assemblies throughout the year to educate the other children on climate change and sustainability. Our team will be;
- Taking part in a project with the RHS to bring in air cleansing plants for wellbeing into the classroom.
- Organising a litter picking campaign in our playground.
- Supporting their classes with collections for our local Food Bank.
- Encouraging recycling of all fruit snack peels into our compost site.
- Supporting others to manage and maintain the Forest School with our Forest School Leader.
- Educating pupils about CAFOD projects which protect our common home and build links with our global brothers and sisters.
Our staff will draw upon resources from National Nature Parks to support our learners to engage with nature meaningfully. For example, Year Two have been learning about Life Processes and Living Things within our grounds and EYFS engage with nature for their weekly Muddy Monday sessions. Recently the children chose to make mud porridge for Goldilocks.
We invite other agencies to work with us, such as the RSPB, Anglia Water and Water Aid as well as our local library service. All of these agencies help children to understand small ways to make big differences in our mission to protect our common home.
Here are some of our children learning outside, connecting with their peers, connecting with nature.
